President Vo Van Thuong successfully concludes his visit to the Republic of Austria, the Republic of Italy and the Vatican.

SGGP 07/30/2023 05:47

On the morning of July 29, President Vo Van Thuong, his wife and the high-ranking Vietnamese delegation arrived in Hanoi , successfully concluding an official visit to the Republic of Austria (from July 23 to 25), a state visit to the Republic of Italy and a visit to the Vatican (from July 25 to 29).

President Vo Van Thuong, his wife and a high-ranking Vietnamese delegation leave Rome, Italy. Photo: VNA

Create new momentum

Responding to VNA, Minister Bui Thanh Son emphasized that this is the first visit to Austria by a Vietnamese President in the past 15 years and the first exchange of delegations at the head of state with Italy and the Vatican in the past 7 years. Taking place in the context of the rapidly and complicated developments in the world and the region, the visit is a clear demonstration of the independent, self-reliant, multilateral and diversified foreign policy set out at the 13th National Congress, demonstrating Vietnam's consistent policy of always attaching importance to developing the traditional friendship and multi-faceted cooperation with Austria, the strategic partnership with Italy, as well as relations with the Vatican.

This visit of President Vo Van Thuong has contributed to creating new momentum to promote bilateral cooperation with Austria and Italy in all fields, from politics - diplomacy, trade - investment, development cooperation, education - training, science - technology, security - defense, culture... The visit is also the most important highlight in the context of Vietnam - Austria relations turning a new page when the two countries have just solemnly celebrated the 50th anniversary of establishing diplomatic relations (1972-2022), as well as Vietnam and Italy are celebrating the 50th anniversary of establishing diplomatic relations and 10 years of establishing the Strategic Partnership in 2023, thereby contributing to demonstrating that the Party and State of Vietnam always attach importance to and prioritize the building and development of good relations with other countries, for the benefit of the people, for peace, cooperation and development of the world and the region.

President Vo Van Thuong met with overseas Vietnamese and Italian friends close to Vietnam in Italy. Photo: VNA

During the working trip, the President and his delegation conducted about 50 activities with rich content and forms, achieving many specific and comprehensive results in all aspects. The countries gave President Vo Van Thuong a solemn, warm and thoughtful welcome. The political world and the local and international press closely followed, reflected and commented positively on the President's activities during the visit, thereby creating a panoramic picture of the success of the visit, reflecting the good friendship between Vietnam and the countries.

Achieved many positive results

According to Minister Bui Thanh Son, with Austria, we show our determination to continuously foster and further develop the traditional friendship and multifaceted cooperation in general and the high trust between the two countries' senior leaders in particular, in line with the tradition of 50 years of diplomatic relations. The two sides have reached high consensus on measures to continue effectively implementing the bilateral agreements, especially in the fields of innovation, energy transition, and culture, contributing to creating new momentum to further promote the relationship in the coming time.

With Italy, the Italian leaders affirmed that Vietnam is Italy's leading important partner in Southeast Asia, and agreed to continue to increase high-level delegation exchanges through Party, State, Government and National Assembly channels. The two sides issued a Joint Statement on strengthening the Vietnam-Italy strategic partnership, setting out major directions and specific measures to deepen bilateral cooperation, especially in the fields of politics, economics - trade, security - defense, education - training, science - technology, culture, tourism, people-to-people exchange, etc.

With the above important results, it can be said that the official visit to the Republic of Austria, the state visit to the Republic of Italy and the visit to the Vatican by President Vo Van Thuong have achieved very good results, creating an important driving force to promote the cooperative relationship to become increasingly deep, effective, stable and sustainable.

According to Minister Bui Thanh Son, during his visit to the Vatican, President Vo Van Thuong met with Pope Francis and the Holy See's Secretary of State, Cardinal Pietro Parolin. The highlight was that the two sides announced the approval of the Regulations on the operation of the Permanent Representative and the Permanent Representative Office of the Holy See in Vietnam, marking a step forward in the Vietnam - Vatican relations. This is the result of a positive exchange process in the spirit of respect, cooperation and mutual understanding.

Source: https://www.sggp.org.vn/chu-tich-nuoc-vo-van-thuong-ket-thuc-tot-dep-chuyen-tham-cong-hoa-ao-cong-hoa-italy-va-toa-thanh-vatican-post699560.html